Freelancers
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- material-10
anything remotely design related or work supplies.
If you are working at home:
% of your rent/mortgage
% of your auto/insurance/gas
- edd-e0
mag subs- yes
cable tv- maybe, can be research
web hosting- yes
internet access- yes
rent- half of it
- arthur0
Don't burn bridges
Roughly 70% of my work comes in from repeat business or direct referrals. Even if I'm late on a project (happens all the time because I overcommit), I do my best to keep clear and pleasant communication with all my clients. As long as I don't drop from sight, they give me a bit of leeway here and there and everything's cool.
People in agencies and magazines and such change jobs all the time, and they usually move laterally. If they had a good experience with you before, they'll likely remember you when their new company needs something. Has happened to me constantly in my 11yrs of doing this.
Repeat business is what keeps you in business.
- kerus0
> If you are working at home:
> % of your rent/mortgagethe problem with that (in CT at least) is if you intend to tell the house someday you will end up having to pay taxes on that space
- Daro0
true, when doing estimates remember to include tax if applicable.
Tax deductibles include gas, electric bill, office supplies and even some lunches, ask your local friendly accountant for details, really. Sometimes we tend to forget the accounting side of freelancing.
- spl33nidoru0
Exactly what JoshClancy said.
One more thing, be careful with clients who suspiciously treat you like a friend or like you're part of the team and end up asking for things here and there, like you're expected to do them the favor.
Be nice but make sure that you charge for everything you do. There can be friendship in work as long as there's respect for each other's work and time.
Favors to demanding clients is the best way for your freelance experience to miserably fail, more so in NYC. Believe me, my stupid kindness has jeopardized my financial and work situation way too many times, repeatedly bringing me back to square one while everybody was moving forward, benefiting from my work.
Also, be very strict when it comes to timelines (even with yourself), even more when it's pro bono work. These free gigs can end up taking MUCH longer than you first expected, and you'll often learn that people only give a shit about your work/time when they pay for it. The less they pay, the more they expect and the more they take for granted.
Last thing, be careful to not underestimate the time something is gonna take you. Client says "it's JUST this" or "I JUST need that" and you can be sure it's gonna take 3 times as long as you first thought.
Best thing to do is to never give direct answers when it comes to money or time, but instead always get back to them with a proposal once you have all the cards in your hand and have been able to really estimate things for yourself.
Sounds pretty negative :)
Freelance in NY is great but you gotta learn to protect yourself or it can really quickly turn into a nightmare with you working 24/7 with no time left for anything else and without even being able to pay your rent.Good luck!
- grafiske0
Biggest hurdle I thought was how some companies do payroll.. not sure if agencies are like this, but a couple labels and a couple clothing companies I worked for the contracts give them 30 days after the project is complete to pay. So you need some money saved up in some cases especially when starting off.
However I am a fairly unsuccessful freelancer so I am not justified to give tips!
- jteore0
*bump
I have tasted the freelance nectar.
By god it is sweet. Currently looking for gigs in the NYC area. Please_only respectable right brained long timers email. I vant' a happy web of network in my world.
[I have a lovely pdf with resume and sample work for viewing pleasure]
- Momentum20
when being an outsourced freelance designer with an agency... do you charge hourly per gig... so lets say a website.. it took you 36 hours... do you simply charge them 36xyour hourly rate... or would you quote them much more?
Thanks
- W_Associates0
Reading all the answers I have to say that everyone seems to be doing good. I would say that a good rate in NYC is between $750-$1.000. What do you think.
- kerus0
in the us, should we be applying sales tax to everything we do?
and how does that come into play? do we have to turn in that x% at the end of the year?
im clueless
- jteore0
Creatively bill. Say it took 45-50 hours at your hourly rate.
- mirrorball0
Just make sure it looks as though it justifies 45-50 hrs work ;)
- ian000
kerus, I used to run my own shop back in Austin and we charged sales tax for everything we did. We collected it and then paid it to the sate at the end of the year. Keeping solid books was a necessity!
However, there is debate about wether you HAVE to charge sales tax. The state (os Texas) says that you have to charge for any "tangible" product. Consulting is not a tangible product so I think alot of design houses don't charge sales tax. I have no idea what the laws are like here (NY).
There's some really great advice in this thread. Thanks all!
- ridiculous0
I have also found that teaming up with a few other like-minded freelancers can help out tremendously. You guys can watch out for each other and help with the project management tasks.
- material-10
I followed this rule of thumb:
If I delivered things to clients via ftp, no sales tax. If I delivered via disk or other physical media then, yes, sales tax. Needless to say I uploaded everything I could.
- jteore0
Just make sure it looks as though it justifies 45-50 hrs work ;)
mirrorball
(May 8 07, 18:48)correct
- arthur0
I'm an illustrator. I don't charge sales tax because my clients are never buying anything tangible. They are only buying rights to reproduce work.
- tkmeister0
yeah, doing the taxes is very tricky. eddie, you pay estimate every quarter?
i freelance for mostly big corporations and agencies, i haven't had any downtime in the past 4-5yrs. sometimes, i get greedy trying to make more money and don't let myself take time off. but i've learned my lesson. it's all about maintaining good balance between work and life outside of design.
try to do a good job at every place you go to. like someone said before, people move around so if you have a good rep, you get more contacts and consistent work from many agencies.
oh, don't go spend all the money you make.
- edd-e0
tk-
i used to do quarterly but lately i had a nice fulltime gig for many years in between the freelance time. so now i didnt do it quarterly and i have to shell out a super large check in one shot.
yay!!
:)